Pakistan believes in sharing growth benefits among all segments of society: Dar

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday said Pakistan strongly believed that benefits of growth must be shared by all segments of society, especially the marginalized groups.

“Income inequality is only one aspect of inequality, whereas disparities in terms of gender, region etc. also need to be addressed to ensure sustainable development,” he said highlighting the issue of rising inequality during the round table conference on ‘Responding to Rising Inequality’ in connection with 50th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s Board of Governors in Yokohama, Japan.

The minister referred to the Pakistan’s Vision 2025 which prioritized investments in human capital and social services and recognized the importance of inclusive and balanced growth and shared prosperity aiming at redressal to geographical and social inequality.

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Dar highlighted the efforts of the federal government to deal with horizontal and vertical inequalities including access of poor to health and education, endowment fund for education, work on social safety nets, skills development, disaster mitigation, increase in Benazir Income Support Program budget allocation and implementation of Pakistan National Financial Inclusion Strategy.

He expressed confidence that development partners, including ADB would play important role in addressing inequality.

The federal minister stated that developing world had made remarkable progress in lowering incidence of poverty in last two decades. He added that around 125,000 people were coming out of poverty on daily basis globally and Asia was leading this endeavour of reducing poverty through its phenomenal economic growth.

Referring to the economic turnaround in Pakistan, the minister stated that after having achieved macroeconomic stability, Pakistan was now focused on achieving higher, sustainable and inclusive economic growth.